Bulgaria's 'Blue' Rightists Demand Referendum on Belene NPP

The co-chair of the Bulgarian rightist Blue Coalition has stated that the future of the Belene NPP should be decided through a referendum. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian rightist Blue Coalition has insisted that the future of the country's Belene nuclear power plant should be decided through a referendum.

"After the reasons for the nuclear accidents are clarified, the future of the project for Belene NPP should be decided through a referendum in which the Bulgarian citizens can assess the strength and power of the arguments of supporters and opponents of the project," the Blue Coalition said Friday in a declaration, presented in the parliament by the co-chair Ivan Kostov.

In his words, the crisis in Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant has made the world become more concerned and review the safety of nuclear energy.

"There were three accidents in the last 30 years – at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Humanity is now looking for reasons why the risk of nuclear accidents turned out almost 100 times greater than the theoretical calculations, which showed a possibility of one accident in 10 000 years," Kostov said.

He stated that a number of countries have taken steps to evaluate the reliability of their nuclear technologies, while others have already stopped their plants or frozen projects for their construction.

"In the mean time, the Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov is an absurd exception from the common concern," Kostov said.

In his opinion, Borisov "absolutely irresponsibly" stated the country's readiness to construct the Benele NPP.

Kostov urged the Bulgarian society, NGOs and European institutions to force the Bulgarian government to comply with the requirements of the common European policy on nuclear power.

The Blue Coalition insisted that Bulgaria should freeze the Belene NPP without further negotiations with Russia until the introduction of the new European requirements for security and safety of nuclear power.

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